Ellen Gustafson: Obesity + Hunger = 1 global food issue

 

1 billion hungry , 1 billion overweight

 

 

 

Speakers Ellen Gustafson: Social entrepreneur

Co-founder of FEED and creator of The 30 Project, Ellen Gustafson is trying to change the way the world eats.

Why you should listen to her:

Ellen Gustafson co-founded FEED Projects in 2007, creating an immensely popular bag whose profits are donated to the UN World Food Program (WFP). As a former employee of the WFP, she supported their mission to provide school lunches in developing countries so that children could receive both the nutrition and education they need. FEED has also created special bags and a new fund to address the crisis in Haiti, helping the children they once fed at school to rebuild their schools.
At TEDxEast in May 2010, Gustafson launched The 30 Project -- an effort to address the world’s hunger and obesity problems as a holistic global food issue. In her new venture, she hopes to stimulate a movement that will change our food and agricultural systems over the next 30 years so that healthy, balanced meals are available to all. Before her efforts to fix the world’s food issues, Gustafson’s primary concern was international security. She wrote and edited pieces on international terrorism for ABC and was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Children around the world are suffering from malnutrition, despite there being enough food for everyone. "

Ellen Gustafson

 

 

What is the 30 Project

The 30 Project is a new way to understand and change the food system.

In the past 30 years, our food system has changed significantly, and today, there is more hunger, more obesity and less healthy agricultural production around the world than ever before.

Changes that started around 1980, precipitated by the consolidation of US agriculture, a decrease in US agricultural aid abroad, and the creation of new and cheap processed foods (like high-fructose corn syrup), have led to our current global landscape of 1 billion hungry and 1 billion overweight.

By a taking a 30-year look back we can see the trajectory of how we got to where we are now and, we believe, that if we can a 30-year look forward, we can envision a global food system that provides healthy, affordable food for people around the world.

The 30 Project will bring together key organizations and activists working around the world on addressing hunger, obesity, and agriculture issues to talk about their visions for a 30-year food system. Many of the best anti-hunger and anti-obesity organizations have been so focused on their important work, that they have not been able to work together on common challenges. The 30 Project will be the table that brings the best people together to work towards creating a truly healthy and sustainable global food system.

http://www.30project.org/